Mineral oils from petroleum, natural oils from plants and animals, and synthetic esters such as polyol esters and polyalphaolefins (PAOs) are commonly used as base stocks in the formulation of lubricants. Lubricants typically consist of 60-100% base stock by weight and the remainder in additives to control their fluid properties and improve low temperature behavior, oxidative stability, corrosion protection, demulsibility and water rejection, friction coefficients, lubricities, wear protection, air release, color and other properties. While the products traditionally used have many advantages and attractive properties, none of them is also free of drawbacks and disadvantages such as, for example, poor low temperature fluidity, and poor thermal oxidative stability, which leads to rapid degradation, thickening and deposit formation in use. An increasingly important characteristic for lubricants is environmental performance. The commonly used basestocks often suffer from the inability to bring together a high level of environmental performance such as biodegradability with traditional lubricant performance characteristics.